Christmas time is here

Having a baby right before the holidays meant we scaled back a little bit this Christmas.  Thanksgiving fell unusually late in the year, leaving only 3 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was running on little sleep and feeling overwhelmed by the "to-do" list that accompanies the holidays.  When I sat down and really looked at the list, I realized that much of it was unnecessary and was only due to pressure I was putting on myself to provide the perfect holiday season for my family.  I embraced the theme of simplicity this year and decided to let go of many of the "must have" traditions that were clogging up our schedule and robbing my joy instead of filling me up.  The neighbors did not get cookies or treats. The house only got the "essential" decorations (Christmas tree, nativities, and deocrated railing - my favorites!) while the majority stayed boxed up in the basement.  I skipped a couple social events in favor of staying home and watching Christmas movies with my girls.  We let go of several things that I thought were mandatory for making Christmas happen, and what do you know... Christmas came anyway.  We slowed down, embraced time as a family, and made great memories together.  I hope that next year all of the decorations go up and cookies get made, but this year was a great way to keep my heart in check and be reminded that the busyness of December can sometimes get in the way and take my eyes off Jesus.  As it is with a newborn, I was up at all hours nursing my sweet baby in the dark and quiet, by the light of the Christmas tree.  I will look back on those late night moments with Paige with such fondness, as every sleepy session looking down at my baby brought my mind and heart into focus... thinking of Mary's first moments holding her newborn babe, the one who would eventually save the world.

With all of the things we cut out, there was still certainly plenty that we did to celebrate Christmas around the Piland home.  Below are a few pictures of some of our fun

We have a tradition of building a gingerbread house each year as a family. This year we invited our friends, The Hafers, over for the fun.  Grace and Avery had a fun time decorating while Norah and Luke had fun trying to eat all the candy.

Avery and Norah had a Hello Kitty gingerbread house which of course meant it was their favorite color... pink! Erich is such a great sport.

Avery putting the star on the tree with Daddy's help

Norah getting some instruction from a seasoned pro

The bottom half of our tree was decorated entirely with "unbreakable" ornaments, mostly felt ornaments made my Great Grandma Staley to minimize the amount of trouble Norah could get into. She liked to move the ornaments from branch to branch and thought the whole thing was very exciting.

Avery is such a big girl she got to stand on a stool and help hang some of the fragile glass ornaments on high branches. She loved that!

Paige's first visit with Santa

Paige was totally cool with Santa, Avery was a little shy, and Norah was downright scared.  Just getting her to be in the picture was a trick. Sitting on his lap was not going to happen.

Norah and Mommy waiting for Avery's preschool Christmas program to start

Singing at her preschool performance about being a jolly snowman.

Avery had a small speaking part in the program this year and was very excited. She practiced for weeks and would recite her line to anyone who asked.  She did a fantastic job!

Grandma and Grandpa came up for a visit to see Avery in action. She loved having them in the audience and we are so thankful they were able to come!

Like I mentioned earlier, we didn't "do" Christmas cookies this year.  On Christmas Eve I realized that not making any treats meant we had nothing to put out for Santa by the fireplace.  Pillsbury "break and bake" pre-made cookies to the rescue!  They were nothing fancy, but the girls didn't care (and I'm sure Santa didn't either). 

We enjoyed our scaled back Christmas, store bought cookies and all.  There's one other thing we did to simplify... When we put up the tree and got out a few decorations, we also got out the tub of Christmas themed toys that only come out of hiding for one month a year. We packed up all of the other toys that usually reside in the living room and for the entire month of December the girls really only had one main toy to play with by the Christmas Tree - the Little People Nativity set.  Because it was "new" and exciting, they didn't really notice that all of the other toys were gone. We didn't get any photos, but I loved watching them play and pretend together with the nativity.  There were also a couple other small nativity toys (a finger puppet one that Norah really loved) and many, many Christmas books about Baby Jesus.  In the midst of all the Santa fun and presents, it was a joy to see our kids focusing their play time on the One true thing that matters.  Simple is good.

"T is for the Tiny Baby, Sleeping in the Hay. His name is baby Jesus, born on Christmas Day".